The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a computer program, and in particular to an information processing system, an information processing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a computer program that can easily provide a user with program information, which is easier to see for the user, and display the program information on a limited screen space effectively.
In recent years, in television broadcasts and the like, there is a service in which an EPG (Electronic Program Guide), which is program guide information in electronic data indicating a broadcast schedule for programs, equivalent to a so-called radio and television program section of a newspaper is provided to users who are viewers of the television broadcasts. For example, there is a method with which a broadcasting station inserts an EPG concerning programs of the own station into a vertical blanking period of video signals of broadcast contents and provides users with the EPG. In this case, since the broadcasting station, which broadcasts the programs, provide the EPG, contents of the EPG provided include only information on the programs of the broadcasting station.
On the other hand, there is a service, for example, by a company different from a broadcasting station, for providing an EPG including information on programs of plural broadcasting stations like the radio and television program section in a newspaper through the Internet or the like. In this case, a provider of the EPG acquires information such as broadcast schedules from the respective broadcasting stations, creates the EPG in an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format or the like on the basis of the information and uploads the EPG to a server or the like.
A user uses a terminal apparatus to make connection to the server and request the EPG from the server. The terminal apparatus includes a household appliance, which has an Internet connection function and is capable of inspecting the EPG, such as a television receiver, a hard disk recorder, a DVD recorder, or a tuner or an electronic information apparatus, which has the internet connection function and is capable of inspecting the EPG, such as a personal computer, a PDA, or a cellular phone. The server supplies the requested EPG to the terminal apparatus, which is a request source, as a WEB page. The terminal apparatus displays the supplied EPG using a WEB browser.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the EPG created in the server. In FIG. 1, an EPG 11 is a WEB content described in the HTML. In the EPG 11, plural broadcasting stations are arranged in an abscissa axis direction and programs scheduled to be broadcasted in respective stations are shown in an ordinate axis direction along the passage of time.
In short, in the EPG 11 in FIG. 1, programs that the broadcasting stations schedule to broadcast from 12 o'clock to 16 o'clock are displayed. For example, a broadcasting station A broadcasts a program A-1 from 12 o'clock, broadcasts a program A-2 from 12:30, broadcasts a program A-3 from 13 o'clock, broadcasts a program A-4 from 14 o'clock, broadcasts a program A-5 from 15 o'clock, and broadcasts a program A-6 from 15:30.
Incidentally, as contents of the EPG, information such as start time and end time of programs, titles of programs, topics of contents, and performers is possible. However, if the server supplies these kinds of information for all the programs, which are broadcasted from the respective stations, at a time, data unnecessary for the user increases, which is extremely inefficient.
Thus, the server divides the EPG for each predetermined time to generate EPGs as plural WEB contents (create an EPG for each predetermined time) . The server supplies only the EPGs of a time frame designated by the terminal apparatus or reduces the number of items of information on the respective programs to reduce an amount of information. Nevertheless, a display size of the EPG 11 in FIG. 1, which is created by the server and supplied to the terminal apparatus, is usually larger than a screen size of a display of the terminal apparatus (a size of a display area of the WEB browser). Thus, only a part of the EPG 11 is displayed in a display area 12 of the terminal apparatus.
In particular, in a television receiver or the like that receives a ground wave television broadcast, resolution of a display of the television receiver is low and a size of the area 12, which is an area of the displayed EPG 11, is small.
In other words, a general EPG such as the EPG 11 is suitable for display on a high resolution monitor with a large display image size.
Therefore, there is a method of allowing a user to perform operation to thereby move (scroll) a position of an EPG, which is displayed by a low resolution display of a terminal apparatus, to make it possible to display the entire EPG 11 (see, for example, JP-A-8-102922).
For example, in FIG. 1, when the area 12, which is an upper left part of the EPG 11, is displayed, programs of the broadcasting stations E to H are not displayed. When the user operates the display area of the EPG 11 and scrolls the display area in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction to thereby make a position of an area 13 of the EPG 11 displayed, programs from 14 o'clock to 16 o'clock of the broadcasting stations E to H, which have not been displayed, are displayed. In this way, even if a monitor of the terminal apparatus is a low resolution monitor, the terminal apparatus can display the entire EPG 11.
However, in the EPG 11 described above, for example, when the area 13 is displayed, since neither broadcasting station names nor time frames are displayed, there is a problem in that the user cannot see which part of the EPG 11 the user is inspecting.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of display in the case in which the area 13 of the EPG 11 is displayed on a display (a WEB browser) of the terminal apparatus.
In FIG. 2, the EPG 11 (the area 13) is displayed on the WEB browser 21. A vertical scroll bar 22 and a horizontal scroll bar 23 are displayed on the WEB browser 21. For example, the user can change an area of the EPG 11 displayed on the WEB browser 21 by operating the vertical scroll bar 22 and the horizontal scroll bar 23.
However, on the WEB browser 21, only information such as programs names is displayed and broadcasting station names and time frames are not displayed.
Note that, in FIG. 2, for explanation, the respective broadcasting stations and codes of programs broadcasted by the broadcasting stations are associated with one another like, for example, programs F-1 to F8 for programs of the broadcasting station F. However, actually, since information such as titles of programs is displayed, it is difficult for the user to associate these kinds of information with the broadcasting stations that broadcast the programs.
Therefore, the user has to memorize contents (broadcasting stations, time frames, etc.) of the entire EPG 11 in order to grasp broadcasting stations and time frames of displayed programs. Thus, there is a problem in that, if the user is unaccustomed to operation or depending on an operation method or the like, the user cannot see which part of the EPG 11 the user is inspecting.
To cope with this problem, it is conceivable to adopt a method of dividing the display area of the WEB browser 21 into plural frames and displaying broadcasting station names, times frames, and the like of the displayed EPG 11 in a frame different from a frame in which the EPG 11 is displayed. However, for that purpose, the pieces of information to be displayed in the respective frames have to be synchronized and a displayed image has to be reconstructed in the terminal apparatus. This requires complicated processing and increases processing time.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in the EPG 11, when a size of a space, in which information such as titles of respective programs (program information) is displayed, is determined on the basis of a broadcasting time length, there is a problem in that the EPG 11 is inefficient concerning display of the program information.
For example, when the number of characters of program information of a certain program is small compared with a size of a space determined on the basis of a broadcasting time of the program, it is likely that a blank space (an excess space) is formed in the space of the program in the EPG 11 and an amount of information (the number of characters) of program information displayed on one screen (e.g., in the area 12 or the area 13) decreases.
Conversely, for example, when the number of characters of program information of a certain program is large compared with a size of a space determined on the basis of a broadcasting time of the program, it is likely that a loss of the program information occurs, for example, all the characters of the program information cannot be displayed in the space of the program in the EPG 11 and a part of the characters are displayed.